Value chain · CLM-1420
In plain terms
In the Royal Society's model, only about 15 per cent of Britain's electricity in 2050 comes out of storage, so the price of storage moves the average cost little. Each unit that does come out of storage costs many times more than wind or solar power used straight away.
The claim as recorded
In the Royal Society's 2050 Great Britain case of wind and solar supply backed by hydrogen storage, storage provides some 15% of the electricity fed into the grid, so the average cost of electricity is relatively insensitive to the assumed cost of storage and is dominated by the cost of wind and solar supply. The report also states that electricity provided by storage will cost many times as much as wind and solar supply fed directly into the grid.
Evidence behind this: T3: a Royal Society policy report with a named report leader (p.92) and its costing method set out in chapter 8; it is not a peer-reviewed journal article.
Scope and limits
Great Britain, 2050, one modelled case with hydrogen as the only large-scale store. The 15% share belongs to that hydrogen-only case. Neither page gives a cost per MWh for electricity delivered from storage, so "many times" carries no number here. Not a firming cost per MWh of wind or solar output. Not additive with, and not on the same basis as, CLM-1421 to CLM-1428.
What it assumes
As CLM-1419: 570 TWh a year of demand, an 80/20 wind and solar mix, hydrogen storage with 20% contingency, 15 GW of batteries.
Where it comes from
p.63 (PDF p.63, read at a zoom 4 render): "The average cost of electricity is relatively insensitive to estimates of storage costs. This is because storage only provides some 15% of the electricity fed into the grid, whose average cost is dominated by the cost of the wind and solar supply." SRC-781 p.7: "The cost of electricity provided by storage will be many times the cost of wind and solar supply that is fed directly into the grid."
Basis: per cent share of electricity fed into the grid, with a qualitative cost comparison; GBP costs in "2021 prices" as printed (p.8); real or nominal not stated.
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-021 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1420
CLM-1420, Energy Aperture, as of 2023-09.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-781
- CLM-1419The Royal Society worked out that a British power system running only on wind and sun, with stored hydrogen to cover calm and dark spells...CLM-1469In the Royal Society's model of a British power system run on wind and sun in 2050, electricity fed into the grid costs about 1.7 to 2...CLM-1488A Royal Society report on storing electricity in Britain, drawing on the Met Office, says a spell of very low winter wind lasting up to a...
- Cited in articles